He was born and raised in an aristocratic family
One of the interesting facts about Hermann Goering is that he was born and raised in an aristocratic family. On January 12, 1893, Goering was born at the Marienbad Sanatorium in Rosenheim, Bavaria. His father, former cavalry officer Heinrich Ernst Göring (31 October 1839 - 7 December 1913), was the first governor-general of German southwest Africa (modern-day Namibia). Heinrich was the father of three children from a previous marriage. Heinrich's second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn (1859-15 July 1943), bore him the fourth of five children. Karl, Olga, and Paula were Goering's older siblings, and Albert was his younger brother. His father was serving as consul general in Haiti at the time of his birth, and his mother had gone home momentarily to give birth. She left the six-week-old infant with a friend in Bavaria and did not see the child again until she and Heinrich returned to Germany three years later.
Goering, who had always wanted to be a soldier, grew up playing with toy soldiers and dressing up in a Boer costume his father had given him. At the age of eleven, he was transferred to boarding school, where the food was inadequate and the discipline was rigorous. He sold a violin to pay for his train ticket home, then hid in his bed, pretending to be ill, until he was assured he didn't have to return. He kept playing war games, pretending to besiege the castle Veldenstein and studying Teutonic legends and sagas. He became a mountaineer, climbing summits in Germany, the Mont Blanc range, and the Austrian Alps. He was transferred to a military institution in Berlin Lichterfelde at the age of 16, where he graduated with honors.
In 1912, Goering joined the Prussian Army's Prince Wilhelm Regiment (112th Infantry, Garrison: Mülhausen). His mother had a falling out with Epenstein the following year. The family was compelled to leave Veldenstein and go to Munich, where Göring's father died soon after. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Göring's regiment was stationed in Mülhausen.
